Terms of Use

Online Terms of Service Agreement

Your Acceptance of the Agreement

This Online Terms of Service Agreement ("Agreement") is made between the Advisory Board Company and the user ("you") of the Advisory.com website and associated applications. This Agreement covers all content, services, and web pages accessible through the Advisory.com website and associated applications or in any Internet-related media and email from the Advisory Board (collectively, the "Service"). The Advisory Board Company reserves the right to modify the disclaimers, terms and conditions of access to the Service, without advance notice, by posting an updated version of this Agreement on the Service. All such modifications are effective twenty-four (24) hours after posting. Your access, link to or use of the Service after the date such amended terms are posted on the Service shall be deemed to constitute acceptance of such amended terms.

BY USING OR INSTALLING ANY PART OF THE SERVICE, YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE TO AND CONSENT TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. YOU CERTIFY THAT YOU HAVE READ AND EXPRESSLY AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THE ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY POSTED ON THIS SITE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS, USE OR INSTALL ANY PART OF THE SERVICE.

Editorial Policy Regarding Use of Advisory.com Material

The Advisory Board Company intends its publications to be used exclusively by its member organizations. By virtue of their membership, employees and designated affiliates of those organizations may access the Advisory Board Company’s website, download online reports, use its tools, and subscribe to its email alerts such as: the Daily Briefing, Clinical Advisory Board Insights, Nursing Insights, Financial Leadership Insights, Cardiovascular Insights, Oncology Insights, and Marketing and Planning Insights.

Sharing Published Material Internally

The Advisory Board Company encourages members to make unlimited copies of its online briefings and material printed from its website, including research studies, for internal use. The Advisory Board Company also encourages members to share published material, in whole or in part, with employees and affiliates of member organizations and to place published material, in whole or in part, on their own intranets, if the intranet is restricted to employees and affiliates of the member organization.

Sharing Published Material Externally

In order to protect the integrity of the membership (i.e., that use of our materials be limited to member organizations that fund the research) as well as the independence of our analysis (i.e., avoiding any inference of an implied endorsement or relationship with a third party) we ask members to check with us before using our materials externally. To request permission, please contact WebHelp at 202-266-5300 or WebHelp@advisory.com.

Comment Policy for Advisory.com

In the spirit of our governing principles—the belief that ideas triumph, the recognition that words matter, and the drive to serve our membership—we hope that our online forums will spark interesting insights and add to your experience using Advisory.com.

Only registered users of Advisory.com are allowed to post comments. Comments will appear under a user's registered name.

We encourage thoughtful and polite comments representing a range of views across the health care industry. Tell us what you think about the industry's latest news and regulations. Discuss our research surveys or studies. Share your organization's own experience implementing a best practice.

However, we make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments — either by the same reader or different readers—and will remove comments that are inaccurate, identical, offensive, inappropriate, or that personally target other members.

We typically do not edit comments, unless they are quoted or excerpted as "letters to the editor" in the Daily Briefing. We also ask that you not use all-capitalization to write your comments.

License and Termination

Your access to and use of the Service, including without limitation any images, text, data or other information (collectively referred to as "Content") available through the Service, is licensed to you, not sold. The Advisory Board Company grants you a limited license to access and use the Service subject to the terms, conditions and disclaimers set forth in this Agreement, and to all applicable state and federal laws and regulations. Failure to abide by any such disclaimers, terms or conditions will result in the immediate termination of your access to the Service. In addition, the Advisory Board Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to all or any portion of the Service for any reason and to take any other actions that the Advisory Board Company, in its sole discretion, believes to be in the interest of the company and of its members as a whole.

You warrant that for any Content you submit to the Service, you own the right to use and provide such Content. In addition, you grant to the Advisory Board Company a permanent and irrevocable license to use, display, distribute, perform, reproduce in whole or in part, modify and create derivative works from the Content, in any media, and you grant the Advisory Board the right to sublicense the same.

Intellectual Property

THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY, ADVISORY.COM, the Advisory Board Company logo, and all other text and images contained on this website are protected by United States trademark and copyright law and other applicable law and are the property of the Advisory Board Company, except as otherwise identified. All rights are reserved. All copyrights and trademarks not the property of the Advisory Board Company that are used or referred to in this website are the property of their respective owners. Nothing contained in this site shall be construed as granting any license or other rights to any copyright, trademark, patent or other property of the Advisory Board Company or any third party, whether by implication, laches, estoppel or explicit grant. Because the content is proprietary, any unauthorized use of materials on the site may violate the law. Materials on the site may not be modified, reproduced or displayed for any commercial or public purpose without specific written permission from the Advisory Board Company. In particular, and not by way of limitation, the Advisory Board Company does not permit framing of the website or of any content on the website.

Access and Confidentiality

This Agreement applies to users of the publicly-accessible portions of the website as well as to users of the password-protected pages. The Advisory Board Company's members are issued user names and passwords and have exclusive access to the password-protected pages of the site. If you access the password-protected web pages but are not a member, your access is not authorized and you must log out and delete all information found on password-protected web pages.

You shall use your best efforts to keep confidential and protect the contents of all password-protected web pages, if you access them, and any derivative works incorporating or based upon them, from disclosure to persons not employed by your Advisory Board Company member organization. The Advisory Board Company will continue to own and to protect the confidential nature of any non-public information contained on a password-protected web page even if and to the extent you incorporate it into a derivative work.

Acceptable Use Policy

You are solely responsible for any and all acts and omissions that occur during or relating to your use of the Advisory.com website, and you agree not to engage in unacceptable use of the website, which includes, without limitation, use of the site to: (a) disseminate or transmit "spam," unsolicited messages, chain letters or unsolicited commercial email; (b) disseminate or transmit material that to a reasonable person may be abusive, obscene, pornographic, defamatory, harassing, grossly offensive, vulgar, threatening or malicious, or any Content that is unlawful, is intended to be used for any unlawful purpose, is false or misleading, or that actually or potentially infringes the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other right of any person, including the Advisory Board Company; (c) create a false identity or otherwise attempt to mislead any person as to the identity or origin of any communication; (d) export, re-export or permit downloading of any message or content in violation of any export or import law, regulation or restriction of the United States and its agencies or authorities, or without all required approvals, licenses or exemptions; (e) interfere, disrupt or attempt to gain unauthorized access to other profiles or accounts on the website or any other computer network; (f) disseminate or transmit viruses or any other malicious code or program; or (g) engage in any other activity deemed by the Advisory Board Company to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of this Agreement.

Content and Non-Endorsement

The Advisory Board Company has worked to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides through the Service. The information created and posted on the Advisory.com website relies on data obtained from many sources believed to be reliable. However, the Advisory Board Company cannot guarantee the accuracy or the completeness of the information provided via the Service or any analysis based thereon. Further, neither the Advisory Board Company nor any of its programs are in the business of giving legal, clinical, accounting or other professional advice, and the information on the Service should not be construed as professional advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances. Users of the Service should not rely on any legal commentary herein as a basis for action, or assume that applicable law would permit any tactics described herein. Before undertaking implementation of any of the tactics discussed herein, members are advised to seek professional counsel on the issues raised by these tactics by consulting with: (1) appropriate legal counsel (on, for example, antitrust, health care fraud and abuse, and tax exemption issues); (2) medical staff and senior managers (on, for example, matters involving clinical practice and direct patient treatment); and (3) other appropriate professionals (on, for example, accounting and tax issues). Neither the Advisory Board Company nor any of its programs shall be liable for any claims or losses that may arise from (a) any errors or omissions in their work product, whether caused by the Advisory Board Company or any of its programs or sources, or (b) reliance on any graded ranking or recommendation by the Advisory Board Company.

The Service may provide links to web pages, websites and various resources or locations on the web. The Advisory Board Company has no control over the information you access via such links, does not endorse that information, and shall not be held responsible for it or for the consequences of your use of that information.

Warranties

In exchange for your access to and use of the Service, you warrant, represent and agree: (a) that you are over the age of thirteen and have the power and authority to enter into and perform your obligations under this Agreement; (b) that you have read and agree to the terms of the Online Privacy Policy posted on this site; (c) that you have read and will strictly observe the Acceptable Use Policy set forth above; (d) that you are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username, password, and password-protected web pages, are responsible for all activities that occur under them, and will maintain their confidentiality; (e) that you must evaluate and bear all the risks associated with the use of any Content, including reliance on the accuracy, completeness or usefulness thereof; (f) that you shall comply with all applicable customs, laws, regulations or other governmental rules of the United States and your place of residence regarding your use of the Service and Content, and that, recognizing that the Internet and your potential use of the Service and Content is global, you are solely responsible for complying with the same and with any other local customs, laws, regulations or other governmental rules; and (g) that you will provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself in any communication with the Advisory Board Company, including email to the Advisory Board Company.

YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE, AND SUCH INFORMATION SHALL NOT CREATE ANY WARRANTY FROM THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY.

Liability

THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY SHALL NOT BE LIABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS, OR GOODWILL, WITH RESPECT TO YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THESE LIMITATIONS OF THE ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY'S LIABILITY APPLY TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION OR CLAIMS IN THE AGGREGATE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, INDEMNITY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATION AND OTHER TORTS. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, some of the above limitations and exclusions may not apply to you.

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